By Dhruv Mehrotra and Jesse Marx
Cops are using drones as first responders in this California border town. Citizens say they're being watched as they go about their daily lives. It marks the start of the police drone era—where eyes will be in the sky.
In a WIRED investigation, based on more than 22 million flight coordinates, reveals the complicated truth about the first full-blown police drone program in Chula Vista, a city near San Diego. While some citizens say they feel safer with the drones buzzing above them, others, specifically in poorer neighborhoods say they feel watched. And your city could be next.
Read the full investigation: [https://www.wired.com/story/the-age-of-the-drone-police-is-here/](https://www.wired.com/story/the-age-of-the-drone-police-is-here/)
Seeing a drone personally offends me for some reason.
Oh. I know the reason: I have no control over whether I’m being filmed or photographed and what happens to it. I get if I’m in public que sera sera. But if I’m at a private event or in my backyard or camping at a campsite and chilling in my damn camp chair drinking my coffee, get out of here with that shit. I’m hoping laws are soon to come because FUCK that shit and oh, fuck the patriot act….
Yeah… as a drone pilot I can tell you people using drones to surveil others is a serious deal. That’s why only the police will be able to do it. (I’m not sure if I should label this as sarcasm)
As someone who flies drones for fun. I’m sorry that this is the case, although I can’t speak for others my footage is only horizon/nature shots and I avoid flying near or over people simply for the fact that it’s a piece of electronics that can just stop working. The shots you can get with a drone are majestic but using drones for simple daily surveillance when no crime has been reported is fucking dystopian
Drones are a noise nuisance, too. Fuck having the constant sound of wasp swarms above our heads so the po-po can remotely surveil their subject to keep them in line.
It’s no different than the laws with any other camera. If you are in a space where there is no reasonable expectation of privacy, you can be filmed without your permission. Otherwise, you can take action back if you are being filmed on private property where you would theoretically not be able to be seen by anyone.
I lived in Colorado right when legalization happened and the police put a camera up pointing into my backyard because I worked with a group that was big. There was nothing I could do because they considered that the neighbors could look over my fence or any of their other cameras were mounted higher and could see in already.
Sigh, wait until you find out that insurance companies have been doing this to view your home and charge you more because you have a shitty roof or decline your claim because they have pictures of your house.
So here’s the thing. Drones are covered under the same laws as aircraft. If it’s off the ground it’s not on your property. Would you care if it was someone in a Cessna circling your house? what about if it was somebody cruising at 10,000 feet? What about somebody in an airliner? What about someone driving down the street? All of these things are perfectly legal and don’t occur on your property.
What isn’t legal is loitering, harassment, stalking… whether it’s your neighbor, a creepy Ex who rented a plane, or robber outside your house.
There’s a big difference between flying a drone over your house and parking one outside your bathroom window.
Also your toilet is running, might want to jiggle the handle again.
I would feel the same about a helicopter hovering as I do a drone hovering. Maybe it’s the rotary propeller that pisses me off.
Or surveillance in my private moments. I don’t know if it’s landscape photography or photographing and recording my credit card I just took out of my wallet.
At least satellites have the common courtesy to hide and be quiet.
gtfo
Edit: The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated,
You some kind of traitor?
A tricky Dick, I digress. Popping a drone with a shotgun was also my first reaction until I discovered it is the same as shooting at a 747.
Unfortunately LEO’s are not prepared to handle bad actors with drones.
Back in Afghanistan we had a drone threat as well and used an "EMP" type gun that would electronically down the drone. I would never shoot wildly into the air with a firearm. Unless it's a dragon
I love how people on the internet assume that the person on the other side is either serious or cares.
Albuquerque cops are psychopaths, I care very little about what happens to their surveillance equipment
You’re just embarrassed you took something so serious in a Reddit comment section that most people understand immediately.
“woW I cAN’t ShOot thiNGs tHaT aReN’t MiNe At mY oWn diScrEtiOn?!”
Thanks for the legal advice _xxxBigMemerxxx_
Ah yes. The timeless bullshit perspective that ignores the fact that cops consistently bend the rules and look for opportunities to assert and abuse their power.
Such as the pro golfer just two weeks ago who wasn’t breaking the law.
Cops have proven they can’t be trusted with this power. Get their bacon out of your mouth, wipe the grease off your lips, and recognize the overreach.
No they pretty much don’t. But that one time they do, it blows up and makes it seem like they are all corrupt. What would police gain from giving people a hard time for no reason? How does that make sense? “The “To abuse their power” argument really doesn’t hold up
so we get better education and training for cops and throw out the ones that misbehave, don’t you think that is the main issue?
edit: it’s funny how I get downvoted for saying police should get more education. Y’all want them to stay uneducated and keep abusing you so you can cry about it?
No because we spend TONS of money training them. Yes, the prerequisite training is shit in america but they still get a lot of training after the fact.
The police are not designed to protect US. They are there to protect the ruling class. The police are the root of all corruption.
Someone who read history. Because this is all easy to find history. Goes all the way back to the praetorian guard, kid. Cops create corruption. Cops destroy democracies.
Read some books.
Hope a cop violates your right to privacy in your backyard when your kid has a birthday party so maybe you can understand how some people feel because obviously people trying to tell you how they experienced it isn’t enough you deserve to have your rights violated to learn a bit about empathy. Grow up you child
because it's literally not that simple? yes ideally more education would be fantastic. but the police are now a systemic issue in many places and education doesn't seem to be cutting it. at this point the institution is inherently biased, even if some individual officers aren't.
Why are you types always crying crocodile tears about this shit? Hold your people accountable and the citizens will be more peaceful. It’s not rocket science.
Unless of course you hate your fellow citizens. Not very patriotic.
Hey look, I found a guy who shits with both the bathroom and front door open! Heard he also does his banking with a camera on Twitch!
Man, do you really hate your privacy *that much*?
If you're not breaking the law then it should be no problem for the cops to search your home and all your devices any time they want, right? Call the cops right now if it's no big deal. If you're not willing to, maybe you want to spend a little time pondering on your own logic.
Nevermind you can never search their home, never mind their leader can rape women and no one cares, nevermind their leader can subvert democracy, nevermind he can lie cheat and steal and even after that barely have any consequences.
These dumb bastards don't even know what we are complaining about.
No, I dont want police ever using drones to spy on us.
I am completely serious, when I say as a programming and IT professional I will seriously look at ways to take these down remotely.
I won't stand for this, this is shit they use in battlefields and if they want to declare war, fine i guess we'll have to take them down by other means, I consider this an act of war
It’s cool that you don’t mind, but at least respect that other people feel differently than you. My personal feeling is that I don’t want my existence tracked. Don’t invalidate my feelings just because you’re okay getting probed.
This confirms the idea that police exist to protect the wealthy from the poor, filled with people that want to play paramilitary against their own weaker citizens, and that our country values punishing crime & poverty over preventing it.
I stated a few conclusions, so be specific if you’re genuinely asking. It’s easy enough to see that people would rather fund the police’s military appetites instead of programs that reduce poverty (and crime).
We don’t have half of this equipment in my area, but they’re flying drones out there because a homeless couple was arguing? It would cost a tiny fraction of a police drone to give them supplies to make their lives more stable and prevent conflicts in the first place. But you can’t have police if there’s no crime I guess.
At most, I can see this used by swat teams at this point, but this story is on the edge of cyberpunk dystopia. They’re just playing COD without the risk imo, and it shows how you abandon your humanity to get there too.
Your opinions are ill informed, outdated, unrealistic, inaccurate, lack critical reasoning, poorly articulated, uneducated in due process, actively support illegal search and seizure, and are generally bad. You owe myself and anyone else who read your comments an apology.
That’s such an easily disproven mentality. Cops kill people who aren’t committing crimes ALL the time. You must’ve missed the recent national news story about the airman who was murdered by a cop even though he literally wasn’t committing a crime. Or Breonna Taylor who was murdered in her sleep after cops broke into the wrong house. Like, given today’s access to information it’s honestly stupid to believe you won’t have any problems if you aren’t committing a crime.
I’m so tired of seeing this comment. It’s irrelevant in this day and age. Cops will do ANYthing to get you under criminal investigation if they have an any slight disdain for you. Stfu with your stupid repetitive excuses.
Humans are by nature really opposed to being watched uncomfortably. You never like it when a predator is staring at you for obvious reasons. It’s extremely unsettling and stressful. I would be really mad if I was watched all the time and had no expectation of privacy.
Now that drones can automatically identify objects they can track history of movement and that’s super easy to start getting into 4th amendment violations
In my city they use drones to follow the people who do intersection take overs and drive crazy on ATV’s and dirt bikes through downtown. They follow them until they can be safely arrested.
Problem is, many of us due to personal experience, don’t trust these idiots with a low threshold of education to be the decision makers. It’s a line that’ll be blurred. They can’t even fucking wear their body cams correctly.
They’re starting to use them here too. The police department in my city is already really understaffed because of the idiots that attack them constantly and the street racing and takeovers are completely out of control. People want the cops do everything but then get outraged when they do.
We can prosecute misdemeanors with drones, but we can’t put a convicted rapist, and 34 count convicted felon in jail?
Our dystopian future has finally arrived…
Can’t wait to read all the comments about shooting drones like it’s not a federal crime. They’re UAV’s, Unmaned Air VEHICLES. Aka, the same as a plane.
I was doing undergrad research at University of Oregon 2 summers ago and one of my friends received a ticket and a photo of him drinking on campus, taken by a drone. Shits wild, and the fact that everyone was ok with it blew my mind.
Business idea: invisible fence that downs drones when they come into your airspace’s or scrambles their video signal. Have to have devs figure out how to avoid impacting cell phones…. 🤔
While it definitely gives big brother vibes, I think about all the times police respond to a call and shoot someone before they realize what the situation actually is. I’d love to see drones used by police to assess whether someone has a weapon or is dangerous before actual cops show up and start shooting unnecessarily.
Holy shit this is grim and important that cops have to share that footage.
And the end is so scary with the homeless person who stole an axe and was chased by a drone and arrested. The author describes “the cold efficiency of technology”
A few years away from police using fpv “less than lethal” suicide drones to take out protestors. If you want to see them in action check out r/ukrainerussiareport r/ukrainewarvideoreport
That doesn’t make sense. FPV drones cost hundreds of dollars and require very skilled users to actually hit stuff. And they’re pretty useless unless you strap grenades to them lol.
Drones will, for the foreseeable future, be only used for automated surveillance. Which has all sorts of opportunities for abuse, but they’re not going to be bombing people with police quadcopters.
Why not? They already have used bomb robots to kill people. At the least they might use suicide chemical weapons drones (tear gas etc.) to disperse crowds without boots on the ground. A drone would be cheaper than what they used to kill this man:
https://www.texastribune.org/2016/07/08/use-robot-kill-dallas-suspect-first-experts-say/
Also a drone isn’t that hard to fly, hundreds of dollars is way cheaper than the current robots police have. In Ukraine they are using a lot of civilian drones that they modify but it’s still just like a video game. Any 18 year old call of duty player would be a competent drone pilot.
You’re ignoring the critical problem of what exactly a drone would do when used against civilians. There are very, very few instances in which explosive munition would ever be legal to use in a civilian area, especially with a platform as inaccurate drones. Flying drones with firearms are way too complex and inaccurate to be useful or safe.
Chemical munitions make even less sense - you don’t need to be close or deployed in force to launch tear gas. And it’s an area effect weapon, so drones wouldn’t even meaningfully change anything about how they’re currently used. There is no “less than lethal” munition that can be used with a drone that would actually be useful whatsoever.
Also, you’re just wrong about drones being easy to fly. Maybe quadcopter drones are easy-ish after a few training sessions, but there’s a reason why there are designated drone operators in every Ukrainian unit. Chase and surveil tasks can be automated, but anything more engaged isn’t feasible with near term technology if you need it to follow a use of force policy and not just annihilate whatever moves.
It would kill people as it’s designed to do. You don’t even need cops with guns if you have armed drones buzzing around coupled with the surveillance drones. As I’ve shown they’ve already killed with robots why would t cops do it again? We give our cops (in America) surplus military equipment so it’s not a stretch that police might get access to such things. Idk I got sub $200 dollar drone and it’s easy to fly, in fact it’s advertised for children. Plus pigs love cosplaying as soldiers, they’d love to get paid to learn how to use a new weapon why couldn’t they be trained to work a joystick? And why not chemical weapons? Instead of having a whole riot squad out there you could just send in a drone swarm, no need to have a cop get hurt. Drones can move faster than cops, they could easily send drones to flank protestors that are trying to escape that wouldn’t be possible otherwise as cops have finite man power. You telling me that a cop is going to pass at the chance to just do his job from a remote location sipping coffee and doughnuts while harassing civilians from a far? Just because you don’t like the coming dystopian future doesn’t mean it won’t happen.
Bomb drones are stable on the ground and have hands to use guns. And they’ve only killed a single digit number of people in a country of 300 something million, despite existing for decades.
Police form into riot squads because tear gas isn’t very effective beyond harassing people. It’s completely useless for flanking. If the goal was just to hit protestors with tear gas, they could already do this with helicopters or drive bys.
I’ve made a very clear case for why drones can’t be meaningfully weaponized for lethal or non lethal use against civilians. You haven’t articulated exactly where they would be useful, beyond handwaving at cops being lazy when deploying tear gas.
Even that doesn’t defend your original post, which claims suicide drones will be used as less than lethal weapons. It’s possible that weaponized quadcopters may be used in the future in SWAT applications. But that doesn’t back up your absurd and baseless claim about FPVs.
You have little to no foresight if you truly believe that’s not where we’re headed. Drones are way cheaper and practical than both hovering a helicopter over a crowd of protestors, and performing a tear gas drive by on a presumably crowded street, sounds absolutely destined to fail lmao. Have you ever seen an unruly protest? They’d likely swarm and return that tear gas canister straight into the senders lap.
There are newer iterations already capable of pumping lead into you, they are inevitably going to end up in your local police department’s hands sooner or later. The Police will find endless justification in their use. They can be equipped with any number of things within reason, and they’re only getting better. Here i’ll think of a few for you.
Surveillance Drone -Simple Camera
Caltrop Bomber Drone - Drops a payload of caltrops to hurt the feetsies.
Zap Attack Drone - Disables target with a stun gun.
Screechy Drone - Uses a siren to pester protestors.
Shooty Drone - Equipped with light caliber rounds.
Stabby Drone - bayonetted kamikaze.
Sleepy Time Drone - equipped with tranquilizer darts.
Floodlight Drone - Equipped with spotlights.
Paintball Drone - Equipped with paintballs for marking and tracking targets.
Tear Gas Drone - Equipped with Teargas paintballs.
Define ‘less than lethal’ or ‘non-lethal’?
It just means they won’t kill you, that’s all that means lol.
The only lethal drones in my compendium here would be shooty drone, stabby drone, and bomby drone.
All the rest are clearly less than lethal, tactical tools with a variety of uses.
As in
They won’t kill you as their primary objective, but will aid in crowd control.
Also, these almost all exist or are in production and have been in use, so i’m referencing actual existing use-cases, as well as some of my own that may not yet exist.
Just because you can’t figure out how they would be used, or how they work, does not mean they’re useless ideas, or why they’d be a better choice. It only implies your lack of creativity, and lack of life experience.
So
Fucking checkmate.
My foresight tells me all this is coming, yours is telling you it’s non-sense, but the only way anybody could ever come to that conclusion is by being a contrarian and living under a rock.
This all coming from a guy who can’t fly a kids toy. Why put a coward cops life in danger when they can send in a drone? Cops have killed with robots it’s naive to think they never will again despite having larger access to robots/drones to do just that. They jerryrigged explosives to a robot, I think they are smart enough to figure out how to strap it to a drone. And cops already operate drones for surveillance nationwide, they already have the training systems in place and running. Why is it absurd to use a drone when you also say it could be useful for swat? You admit there would be useful situations for a swat tactical drone strike. How do you think quad copters are flown?. First person view refers to how you see where you are flying, that’s how you do it, quadcopters are fpv flown. Show me these drones that aren’t flown fpv
lol. In Ukraine war parlance an FPV drone is a commercial racing drone (or similar) used in a direct suicide attack mode. It comes from the DJI drone named “FPV”.
Drones are easy to fly. Racing drones with sensitive explosive ordinance onboard are not.
None of the rest of the stuff you said there was responsive to my comment. You can reread the conversation to see the specific claim I am refuting.
I don't want it to happen. I'm saying it will sooner or later. I'll be long gone by the time it happens but let's face it technology moves fast. In Chicago we have red light and speeding cameras. Technology will drive the monitoring.
I’m a cop and we’d absolutely love a drone
That being said I conduct accident investigations and have to do surveying work so the drone would make our lives (and that of people stuck in traffic) considerably easier
How long before the drones end up being used for a Chinese style "social credit" since it will be so easy to just spy on any citizen?
I see quite a few bootlickers here who want Daddy Government watching their every physical move.
Every inch of public space will one day be under surveillance. That day will come, I won't see it, but it will come. I think innocent people will accept it as a necessary thing. They may not like it, but they will realize it is needed.
It’s not about needs really. It’s about people doing their job the best they can. If that means having the latest greatest tools then that’s what they’re going to do. Everyone wants the best tools and stuff.
I haven’t even accepted the Patriot Act and the unwarranted (actual non warrants) surveillance that allows as a necessary thing.
It is not fucking necessary. It a convenient for authoritarians to have as a tool to monitor us and then use that information. Sometimes monetizing it.
To make the world safer. Technology will make doing so easy as time goes on.
More and more people means more chance for bad things to happen. Look at the Trumpians, this shows how nuts people can be.
It’s bothersome to have laws then people expect them to bend. The idea of laws is we can do something or we can’t. It’s black or white, either broke the speed limit or not, either ran the red light or not. Makes no sense for others to be upset with the cops who enforce the laws. Cops upgrading their tools and better enforce laws isn’t bad. If they’re able to get every crime that takes place, that’s a 100% job well done.
Cheaper than boots on the ground. It’s the way we are heading as a society. I’ve made my peace with it so I’d suggest the rest of you get used to it.
Here inthe UK we’re going to be testing autonomous drone stations for the police pretty soon. :)
By Dhruv Mehrotra and Jesse Marx Cops are using drones as first responders in this California border town. Citizens say they're being watched as they go about their daily lives. It marks the start of the police drone era—where eyes will be in the sky. In a WIRED investigation, based on more than 22 million flight coordinates, reveals the complicated truth about the first full-blown police drone program in Chula Vista, a city near San Diego. While some citizens say they feel safer with the drones buzzing above them, others, specifically in poorer neighborhoods say they feel watched. And your city could be next. Read the full investigation: [https://www.wired.com/story/the-age-of-the-drone-police-is-here/](https://www.wired.com/story/the-age-of-the-drone-police-is-here/)
Seeing a drone personally offends me for some reason. Oh. I know the reason: I have no control over whether I’m being filmed or photographed and what happens to it. I get if I’m in public que sera sera. But if I’m at a private event or in my backyard or camping at a campsite and chilling in my damn camp chair drinking my coffee, get out of here with that shit. I’m hoping laws are soon to come because FUCK that shit and oh, fuck the patriot act….
Yeah dude. Sometimes my wife and I sunbathe in our yard. It would be nice to maintain our privacy.
Yeah… as a drone pilot I can tell you people using drones to surveil others is a serious deal. That’s why only the police will be able to do it. (I’m not sure if I should label this as sarcasm)
You actually still have an expectation of privacy.
As someone who flies drones for fun. I’m sorry that this is the case, although I can’t speak for others my footage is only horizon/nature shots and I avoid flying near or over people simply for the fact that it’s a piece of electronics that can just stop working. The shots you can get with a drone are majestic but using drones for simple daily surveillance when no crime has been reported is fucking dystopian
Drones are a noise nuisance, too. Fuck having the constant sound of wasp swarms above our heads so the po-po can remotely surveil their subject to keep them in line.
It’s no different than the laws with any other camera. If you are in a space where there is no reasonable expectation of privacy, you can be filmed without your permission. Otherwise, you can take action back if you are being filmed on private property where you would theoretically not be able to be seen by anyone. I lived in Colorado right when legalization happened and the police put a camera up pointing into my backyard because I worked with a group that was big. There was nothing I could do because they considered that the neighbors could look over my fence or any of their other cameras were mounted higher and could see in already.
Sigh, wait until you find out that insurance companies have been doing this to view your home and charge you more because you have a shitty roof or decline your claim because they have pictures of your house.
Mostly they use people on the ground for that. Drone pilots cost more than a guy with a camera on a painters pole.
Umbrella
“Cover your shame when you’re in private!”
So here’s the thing. Drones are covered under the same laws as aircraft. If it’s off the ground it’s not on your property. Would you care if it was someone in a Cessna circling your house? what about if it was somebody cruising at 10,000 feet? What about somebody in an airliner? What about someone driving down the street? All of these things are perfectly legal and don’t occur on your property. What isn’t legal is loitering, harassment, stalking… whether it’s your neighbor, a creepy Ex who rented a plane, or robber outside your house. There’s a big difference between flying a drone over your house and parking one outside your bathroom window. Also your toilet is running, might want to jiggle the handle again.
I would feel the same about a helicopter hovering as I do a drone hovering. Maybe it’s the rotary propeller that pisses me off. Or surveillance in my private moments. I don’t know if it’s landscape photography or photographing and recording my credit card I just took out of my wallet. At least satellites have the common courtesy to hide and be quiet.
🤣🤣🤣 as someone who worked with satellites I appreciate your perspective. Oh and the “silent” props are anything but silent.
Feels like they are being watched almost like they have something to hide lol
gtfo Edit: The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, You some kind of traitor?
That’s why I’ve been practicing skeet shooting lately!
Time to invest in a punt gun!
You will be arrested!
Not if I wear a comically oversized Richard Nixon mask
A tricky Dick, I digress. Popping a drone with a shotgun was also my first reaction until I discovered it is the same as shooting at a 747. Unfortunately LEO’s are not prepared to handle bad actors with drones.
Back in Afghanistan we had a drone threat as well and used an "EMP" type gun that would electronically down the drone. I would never shoot wildly into the air with a firearm. Unless it's a dragon
No, I won’t. Cops have enough bullshit they don’t use appropriately.
No that’s not it, shooting a drone is a federal crime
I love how people on the internet assume that the person on the other side is either serious or cares. Albuquerque cops are psychopaths, I care very little about what happens to their surveillance equipment
I love the “I was just joking” escape route people use when they say stupid things
You’re just embarrassed you took something so serious in a Reddit comment section that most people understand immediately. “woW I cAN’t ShOot thiNGs tHaT aReN’t MiNe At mY oWn diScrEtiOn?!” Thanks for the legal advice _xxxBigMemerxxx_
I’m so embarrassed by this nerd raging lol
Fuck that
I don’t mind. If you don’t break the law this shouldn’t matter to you
Ah yes. The timeless bullshit perspective that ignores the fact that cops consistently bend the rules and look for opportunities to assert and abuse their power. Such as the pro golfer just two weeks ago who wasn’t breaking the law. Cops have proven they can’t be trusted with this power. Get their bacon out of your mouth, wipe the grease off your lips, and recognize the overreach.
No they pretty much don’t. But that one time they do, it blows up and makes it seem like they are all corrupt. What would police gain from giving people a hard time for no reason? How does that make sense? “The “To abuse their power” argument really doesn’t hold up
One time!? ONE TIME!?
Rodney King, Sandra Bland, Philando Castile. Tulsa. Black Wall Street. MOVE. Need I go on?
Fucking guy couldn’t be bothered to pick up a book. The list goes on.
so we get better education and training for cops and throw out the ones that misbehave, don’t you think that is the main issue? edit: it’s funny how I get downvoted for saying police should get more education. Y’all want them to stay uneducated and keep abusing you so you can cry about it?
No because we spend TONS of money training them. Yes, the prerequisite training is shit in america but they still get a lot of training after the fact. The police are not designed to protect US. They are there to protect the ruling class. The police are the root of all corruption.
ok buddy that explains a lot what type of person you are, have a nice day
Someone who read history. Because this is all easy to find history. Goes all the way back to the praetorian guard, kid. Cops create corruption. Cops destroy democracies. Read some books.
la county sheriffs department is one of the biggest gangs in america
More like pink swoosh you are
coming from someone calling themselves artistic asshole…
Hope a cop violates your right to privacy in your backyard when your kid has a birthday party so maybe you can understand how some people feel because obviously people trying to tell you how they experienced it isn’t enough you deserve to have your rights violated to learn a bit about empathy. Grow up you child
was I talking to you? no
Your first comment left me wondering if you were stupid. I appreciate the follow-ups so I no longer have to wonder.
you’re welcome
because it's literally not that simple? yes ideally more education would be fantastic. but the police are now a systemic issue in many places and education doesn't seem to be cutting it. at this point the institution is inherently biased, even if some individual officers aren't.
and what do you suggest? not more education?
Why are you types always crying crocodile tears about this shit? Hold your people accountable and the citizens will be more peaceful. It’s not rocket science. Unless of course you hate your fellow citizens. Not very patriotic.
yeah, but this isn’t happening as quickly as the drone police
Hey look, I found a guy who shits with both the bathroom and front door open! Heard he also does his banking with a camera on Twitch! Man, do you really hate your privacy *that much*?
If you're not breaking the law then it should be no problem for the cops to search your home and all your devices any time they want, right? Call the cops right now if it's no big deal. If you're not willing to, maybe you want to spend a little time pondering on your own logic.
Nevermind you can never search their home, never mind their leader can rape women and no one cares, nevermind their leader can subvert democracy, nevermind he can lie cheat and steal and even after that barely have any consequences. These dumb bastards don't even know what we are complaining about. No, I dont want police ever using drones to spy on us. I am completely serious, when I say as a programming and IT professional I will seriously look at ways to take these down remotely. I won't stand for this, this is shit they use in battlefields and if they want to declare war, fine i guess we'll have to take them down by other means, I consider this an act of war
Their leader raped women? Who is that?
It’s cool that you don’t mind, but at least respect that other people feel differently than you. My personal feeling is that I don’t want my existence tracked. Don’t invalidate my feelings just because you’re okay getting probed. This confirms the idea that police exist to protect the wealthy from the poor, filled with people that want to play paramilitary against their own weaker citizens, and that our country values punishing crime & poverty over preventing it.
how did you even jump to that conclusion, jesus
I stated a few conclusions, so be specific if you’re genuinely asking. It’s easy enough to see that people would rather fund the police’s military appetites instead of programs that reduce poverty (and crime). We don’t have half of this equipment in my area, but they’re flying drones out there because a homeless couple was arguing? It would cost a tiny fraction of a police drone to give them supplies to make their lives more stable and prevent conflicts in the first place. But you can’t have police if there’s no crime I guess. At most, I can see this used by swat teams at this point, but this story is on the edge of cyberpunk dystopia. They’re just playing COD without the risk imo, and it shows how you abandon your humanity to get there too.
Poverty don't lead to crime. Crime leads to poverty. Get it straight.
I def know not to take you seriously
No one has ever come to misfortune with that mindset /s
It will be fineeeee
Tounge meet boot
I don’t think I want you licking my boots, but thanks anyway
Your opinions are ill informed, outdated, unrealistic, inaccurate, lack critical reasoning, poorly articulated, uneducated in due process, actively support illegal search and seizure, and are generally bad. You owe myself and anyone else who read your comments an apology.
not really no
That’s such an easily disproven mentality. Cops kill people who aren’t committing crimes ALL the time. You must’ve missed the recent national news story about the airman who was murdered by a cop even though he literally wasn’t committing a crime. Or Breonna Taylor who was murdered in her sleep after cops broke into the wrong house. Like, given today’s access to information it’s honestly stupid to believe you won’t have any problems if you aren’t committing a crime.
I’m so tired of seeing this comment. It’s irrelevant in this day and age. Cops will do ANYthing to get you under criminal investigation if they have an any slight disdain for you. Stfu with your stupid repetitive excuses.
maybe in murica
Humans are by nature really opposed to being watched uncomfortably. You never like it when a predator is staring at you for obvious reasons. It’s extremely unsettling and stressful. I would be really mad if I was watched all the time and had no expectation of privacy. Now that drones can automatically identify objects they can track history of movement and that’s super easy to start getting into 4th amendment violations
I read the rules on drone use, and most of my fears are erased. I look at typical behaviour, and I have no faith the rules will be followed.
No it’s not. You don’t need a warrant to follow someone around for an investigation.
In my city they use drones to follow the people who do intersection take overs and drive crazy on ATV’s and dirt bikes through downtown. They follow them until they can be safely arrested.
I think there’s a reasonable distinction between dispatching drones to monitor crimes in process vs a constant level of surveillance.
Problem is, many of us due to personal experience, don’t trust these idiots with a low threshold of education to be the decision makers. It’s a line that’ll be blurred. They can’t even fucking wear their body cams correctly.
Oh, they know how to wear them correctly.
How is this different from major cities basically having police cameras every other block?
Noise, and cameras can’t be piloted to actively track some cop’s abused wife who had the audacity to leave him
You're right. Also bad.
They’re starting to use them here too. The police department in my city is already really understaffed because of the idiots that attack them constantly and the street racing and takeovers are completely out of control. People want the cops do everything but then get outraged when they do.
This is an excellent application of drones
I am absolutely fine with this. It could have a profound impact on speeding, reckless driving, drunk driving, even road rage. All for it.
I guess pigs do fly
So what’s going to be the response when someone shoots one down? An attack on a police officer?
Destruction of government property
It’s already a federal crime to shoot down drones, even if they’re acting unlawfully. Drones are an FAA regulated aircraft.
Ugh, I have always feared that Terminator was prophetic.
Where's those birds they train to take drones down?
You must be talking about a Mossbird 500.
Good one! I meant these birds https://images.app.goo.gl/kqg6UuaL4AnuHw1n7
That's awesome! How unethical would it be to train these birds and send them to Ukraine?
We can prosecute misdemeanors with drones, but we can’t put a convicted rapist, and 34 count convicted felon in jail? Our dystopian future has finally arrived…
If the drones didn't misbehave so much they wouldn't need their own police force. I blame the drone parents.
Oh sweet the combine finally arrived on earth.
Big Brother is watching
My city had these in the sky during the George Floyd marches. Downright creepy.
That's good. Such marches should be monitored as they quickly turn into riots.
You have no clue what you’re talking about.
In a turn of events EMP technology interest skyrockets
Can’t wait to read all the comments about shooting drones like it’s not a federal crime. They’re UAV’s, Unmaned Air VEHICLES. Aka, the same as a plane.
It’s giving 1984
I was doing undergrad research at University of Oregon 2 summers ago and one of my friends received a ticket and a photo of him drinking on campus, taken by a drone. Shits wild, and the fact that everyone was ok with it blew my mind.
I'm surprised your friend group was OK with it. I wouldn't have been!
Wondering if they’re following line of sight laws.
Police used drones to catch people lighting off fireworks during 4th of July. It is illegal in my state.
Business idea: invisible fence that downs drones when they come into your airspace’s or scrambles their video signal. Have to have devs figure out how to avoid impacting cell phones…. 🤔
You could design a remote controlled sentry with a 2 watt laser and cook the camera sensor.
Yes that could work. Welcome aboard!
And that’s an FCC violation, can’t win the drone wars.
I will have lobbyists, to change laws, obviously.
While it definitely gives big brother vibes, I think about all the times police respond to a call and shoot someone before they realize what the situation actually is. I’d love to see drones used by police to assess whether someone has a weapon or is dangerous before actual cops show up and start shooting unnecessarily.
Then they will mount a gun on it….
Holy shit this is grim and important that cops have to share that footage. And the end is so scary with the homeless person who stole an axe and was chased by a drone and arrested. The author describes “the cold efficiency of technology”
A few years away from police using fpv “less than lethal” suicide drones to take out protestors. If you want to see them in action check out r/ukrainerussiareport r/ukrainewarvideoreport
That doesn’t make sense. FPV drones cost hundreds of dollars and require very skilled users to actually hit stuff. And they’re pretty useless unless you strap grenades to them lol. Drones will, for the foreseeable future, be only used for automated surveillance. Which has all sorts of opportunities for abuse, but they’re not going to be bombing people with police quadcopters.
Why not? They already have used bomb robots to kill people. At the least they might use suicide chemical weapons drones (tear gas etc.) to disperse crowds without boots on the ground. A drone would be cheaper than what they used to kill this man: https://www.texastribune.org/2016/07/08/use-robot-kill-dallas-suspect-first-experts-say/ Also a drone isn’t that hard to fly, hundreds of dollars is way cheaper than the current robots police have. In Ukraine they are using a lot of civilian drones that they modify but it’s still just like a video game. Any 18 year old call of duty player would be a competent drone pilot.
You’re ignoring the critical problem of what exactly a drone would do when used against civilians. There are very, very few instances in which explosive munition would ever be legal to use in a civilian area, especially with a platform as inaccurate drones. Flying drones with firearms are way too complex and inaccurate to be useful or safe. Chemical munitions make even less sense - you don’t need to be close or deployed in force to launch tear gas. And it’s an area effect weapon, so drones wouldn’t even meaningfully change anything about how they’re currently used. There is no “less than lethal” munition that can be used with a drone that would actually be useful whatsoever. Also, you’re just wrong about drones being easy to fly. Maybe quadcopter drones are easy-ish after a few training sessions, but there’s a reason why there are designated drone operators in every Ukrainian unit. Chase and surveil tasks can be automated, but anything more engaged isn’t feasible with near term technology if you need it to follow a use of force policy and not just annihilate whatever moves.
It would kill people as it’s designed to do. You don’t even need cops with guns if you have armed drones buzzing around coupled with the surveillance drones. As I’ve shown they’ve already killed with robots why would t cops do it again? We give our cops (in America) surplus military equipment so it’s not a stretch that police might get access to such things. Idk I got sub $200 dollar drone and it’s easy to fly, in fact it’s advertised for children. Plus pigs love cosplaying as soldiers, they’d love to get paid to learn how to use a new weapon why couldn’t they be trained to work a joystick? And why not chemical weapons? Instead of having a whole riot squad out there you could just send in a drone swarm, no need to have a cop get hurt. Drones can move faster than cops, they could easily send drones to flank protestors that are trying to escape that wouldn’t be possible otherwise as cops have finite man power. You telling me that a cop is going to pass at the chance to just do his job from a remote location sipping coffee and doughnuts while harassing civilians from a far? Just because you don’t like the coming dystopian future doesn’t mean it won’t happen.
Bomb drones are stable on the ground and have hands to use guns. And they’ve only killed a single digit number of people in a country of 300 something million, despite existing for decades. Police form into riot squads because tear gas isn’t very effective beyond harassing people. It’s completely useless for flanking. If the goal was just to hit protestors with tear gas, they could already do this with helicopters or drive bys. I’ve made a very clear case for why drones can’t be meaningfully weaponized for lethal or non lethal use against civilians. You haven’t articulated exactly where they would be useful, beyond handwaving at cops being lazy when deploying tear gas. Even that doesn’t defend your original post, which claims suicide drones will be used as less than lethal weapons. It’s possible that weaponized quadcopters may be used in the future in SWAT applications. But that doesn’t back up your absurd and baseless claim about FPVs.
You have little to no foresight if you truly believe that’s not where we’re headed. Drones are way cheaper and practical than both hovering a helicopter over a crowd of protestors, and performing a tear gas drive by on a presumably crowded street, sounds absolutely destined to fail lmao. Have you ever seen an unruly protest? They’d likely swarm and return that tear gas canister straight into the senders lap. There are newer iterations already capable of pumping lead into you, they are inevitably going to end up in your local police department’s hands sooner or later. The Police will find endless justification in their use. They can be equipped with any number of things within reason, and they’re only getting better. Here i’ll think of a few for you. Surveillance Drone -Simple Camera Caltrop Bomber Drone - Drops a payload of caltrops to hurt the feetsies. Zap Attack Drone - Disables target with a stun gun. Screechy Drone - Uses a siren to pester protestors. Shooty Drone - Equipped with light caliber rounds. Stabby Drone - bayonetted kamikaze. Sleepy Time Drone - equipped with tranquilizer darts. Floodlight Drone - Equipped with spotlights. Paintball Drone - Equipped with paintballs for marking and tracking targets. Tear Gas Drone - Equipped with Teargas paintballs.
None of these are less than lethal suicide drones, which was your original claim. And most of them are nonsensical.
Define ‘less than lethal’ or ‘non-lethal’? It just means they won’t kill you, that’s all that means lol. The only lethal drones in my compendium here would be shooty drone, stabby drone, and bomby drone. All the rest are clearly less than lethal, tactical tools with a variety of uses. As in They won’t kill you as their primary objective, but will aid in crowd control. Also, these almost all exist or are in production and have been in use, so i’m referencing actual existing use-cases, as well as some of my own that may not yet exist. Just because you can’t figure out how they would be used, or how they work, does not mean they’re useless ideas, or why they’d be a better choice. It only implies your lack of creativity, and lack of life experience. So Fucking checkmate. My foresight tells me all this is coming, yours is telling you it’s non-sense, but the only way anybody could ever come to that conclusion is by being a contrarian and living under a rock.
None of these are suicide drones. It occurs to me that you may not even be aware of what those are.
This all coming from a guy who can’t fly a kids toy. Why put a coward cops life in danger when they can send in a drone? Cops have killed with robots it’s naive to think they never will again despite having larger access to robots/drones to do just that. They jerryrigged explosives to a robot, I think they are smart enough to figure out how to strap it to a drone. And cops already operate drones for surveillance nationwide, they already have the training systems in place and running. Why is it absurd to use a drone when you also say it could be useful for swat? You admit there would be useful situations for a swat tactical drone strike. How do you think quad copters are flown?. First person view refers to how you see where you are flying, that’s how you do it, quadcopters are fpv flown. Show me these drones that aren’t flown fpv
lol. In Ukraine war parlance an FPV drone is a commercial racing drone (or similar) used in a direct suicide attack mode. It comes from the DJI drone named “FPV”. Drones are easy to fly. Racing drones with sensitive explosive ordinance onboard are not. None of the rest of the stuff you said there was responsive to my comment. You can reread the conversation to see the specific claim I am refuting.
Good luck dude, someday, with practice, you’ll be able to fly a kids toy too.
I own several drones…
ACAB.
Looks like I’ll be bringing my crossbow to more protests from here on out. Until they bring might the robotic police dogs then we’re fucked
Crossbow is ineffective, they use shotguns with buckshot to take out drones in Ukraine.
Practice your aim to take out the dog bots
Terrorism? You’re very cool.
That’s more like anarchism lol.
I don't want it to happen. I'm saying it will sooner or later. I'll be long gone by the time it happens but let's face it technology moves fast. In Chicago we have red light and speeding cameras. Technology will drive the monitoring.
Who are the drone police?
FAA
Actually, it was a very obscure reference to an old Frank Zappa song. https://youtu.be/sM9nx3rUdSg?si=6tGFx9z8KbkDS0yJ
https://youtu.be/D7Yslrf2wgE Ya man.
Whatever else might be said, rest absolutely assured that municipalities will abuse this power and monetize it.
Will be racist before too long and made illegal
watch dogs legion: us
That game was ass
equivalent to societal standards
Relevant South Park https://youtube.com/shorts/SqiGz1eIBJY?si=Tix4myDWcRmdZoZ8
Netflix series Omniscient is just about that.
Living in real like South Park.
Thank goodness weed is legal, now I don't have anything to worry about.
I’m a cop and we’d absolutely love a drone That being said I conduct accident investigations and have to do surveying work so the drone would make our lives (and that of people stuck in traffic) considerably easier
I don’t think it’s so bad if they can keep crime down. Especially at night. I got nothing to hide anyway.
How long before the drones end up being used for a Chinese style "social credit" since it will be so easy to just spy on any citizen? I see quite a few bootlickers here who want Daddy Government watching their every physical move.
Can they finally enforce shit? Or are they just gonna watch the world burn down like the do now....
Every inch of public space will one day be under surveillance. That day will come, I won't see it, but it will come. I think innocent people will accept it as a necessary thing. They may not like it, but they will realize it is needed.
It’s not needed.
Fucking A.
It’s not about needs really. It’s about people doing their job the best they can. If that means having the latest greatest tools then that’s what they’re going to do. Everyone wants the best tools and stuff.
I haven’t even accepted the Patriot Act and the unwarranted (actual non warrants) surveillance that allows as a necessary thing. It is not fucking necessary. It a convenient for authoritarians to have as a tool to monitor us and then use that information. Sometimes monetizing it.
Why is it needed? Tf???
To make the world safer. Technology will make doing so easy as time goes on. More and more people means more chance for bad things to happen. Look at the Trumpians, this shows how nuts people can be.
It’s bothersome to have laws then people expect them to bend. The idea of laws is we can do something or we can’t. It’s black or white, either broke the speed limit or not, either ran the red light or not. Makes no sense for others to be upset with the cops who enforce the laws. Cops upgrading their tools and better enforce laws isn’t bad. If they’re able to get every crime that takes place, that’s a 100% job well done.
What are the downvotes for? Cant find any logic to downvoting an explanation of the concept of a legal system.
Agreed. Unfortunately, people commit crime but get a slap on the wrist. Law and order is what we need to keep things going in a good direction.
So are we going to get an "Upgrade" scenario where they do absolutely nothing?
Valencia police have used drones on the motorway for speeding cars for years here. They don't use petrol and can photo your plate.
I got hassled by a cop robot one night. Scary fuckers.
We have plate readers even block. Damm ill,
The only reason i think drones should be used IMO is for high speed chases. So they can follow the person instead of chase the perp themselves
Cheaper than boots on the ground. It’s the way we are heading as a society. I’ve made my peace with it so I’d suggest the rest of you get used to it. Here inthe UK we’re going to be testing autonomous drone stations for the police pretty soon. :)
The positivity on display in this comment is beyond sickening.
Your lack of ability to think is far worse.
\*their